Download Hyphens

Hyphens
Hyphens are used to join words or to separate syllables of a word at the end of a sentence.
Hyphens with compound words
1. Compound adjectives. Hyphenate most compound adjectives that modify a
single noun and that precede the noun. (Do not use a hyphen if the compound
adjective follows the noun or if the word is an –ly adverb or adjective.)
• The well-known author has connections to the mob.
• A two-foot snake crossed our path.
2. Compound numbers. Compound numbers are hyphenated.
• She was fifty-six years old.
• There are forty-nine books on that very subject.
3. Coined compounds. These are combinations of words that you are using in an
unexpected way.
• There she stood with her I-don’t-need-anyone-telling-me attitude.
• The clerk had the don-t-go-there look, so I kept my mouth shut.
4. Suspended hyphens. You can use a hyphen for words that share the same base
word.
•
Each parent asked him- or herself the same question.
Prefixes and suffixes. Most words written with pre- or suffixes are written without hyphens
except in the following instances.
1. If the prefix is before a capitalized base word.
•
un-American
•
Pre-Civil War
2. If the prefix accompanies a number.
•
The pre-1970
•
The post-1850
3. Prefixes with ex

Ex-wife
Ex-husband
4. Prefixes with self or all
•
Self-aware
•
All-state
5. Suffix elect
•
President-elect
•
Governor-elect
6. Prefixes with compound base words
•
Post-high school
•
Pre-elementary school Clarity. Use hyphens if it will clarify.
•
1. If the word can be misread: re-cover, meaning to cover again versus recover.
2. If the prefix or suffix begins with the same letter that the base word begins or ends with.
Antiinflation, troll-like, semi-independent, shell-like.
Divided word at the end of the line. Only break the word between syllables. Di-vide or between.
For already hyphenated words, divide the word at the hyphen. Mass-produced.